Chapter 1, Processing Data, focuses on data manipulation. It explains how to build data queries, check and modify existing data, read and write external files, and use data effectively.

Chapter 2, Working with Forms, covers various aspects of building forms in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. In this chapter, dialogs and their events are explained. Also, various useful features, such as splitters, tree controls, and checklists, are explained.

Chapter 3, Working with Data in Forms, basically supplements Chapter 2, Working with Forms, and explains the data organization in forms. The examples in this chapter include instructions for building filter controls on forms, processing multiple records, and working with images and colors.

Chapter 4, Building Lookups, covers all kinds of lookups in the system. This chapter starts with a simple, automatically generated lookup, continues with more advanced ones, and finishes with standard Windows lookups, such as the file selection dialog and the color picker.

Chapter 5, Processing Business Tasks, explains how to use the Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations business logic API. In this chapter, topics such as how to process journals, purchase orders, and sales orders are discussed. Other features, such as posting ledger vouchers, modifying transaction texts, and creating electronic payment formats, are included as well.

Chapter 6, Data Management, explains the data management and data entity concepts, how to build a data entity, data packages, and import and export in Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations.

Chapter 7, Integration with Microsoft Office, explains how to configure and use the Excel Data Connector add-in, and design Excel workbooks with the data feed from Dynamics 365 from Operations using OData. It also covers how to use the export API and document management.

Chapter 8, Integration with Power BI, explains the configuration of Power BI and its integration with Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations to develop interactive dashboards and embed them in Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations workspaces.

Chapter 9, Integration with Services, explains how to use services in Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations. This chapter covers how to create services, authentication, SOAP applications, JSON applications, and OData services. It also demonstrates how to consume external services.

Chapter 10, Improving Development Efficiency and Performance, presents a few ideas on how to make daily development tasks easier. It discusses how system performance can be improved by following several simple rules. This chapter explains how to calculate code execution time, how to write efficient SQL statements, and how to properly cache display methods.

The code in this book follows the best practice guidelines provided by Microsoft, but there are some exceptions:

Also, here are some considerations that you need to keep in mind when reading this book:

All the coding examples were performed in a Microsoft Azure-hosted Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations environment. The following list of software from the virtual image was used in this book:

Although all the recipes have been tested on the previously-mentioned software, they may work on older or newer software versions with minor code adjustments. As Microsoft is continuously evolving on Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations, we might see some differences while using the same code in older or newer updates of application. Stick to the concept and customize or extend the application.

If you are a Dynamics AX developer primarily focused on delivering time-proven applications, then this book is for you. This book is also ideal for people who want to raise their programming skills above the beginner level, and, at the same time, learn the functional aspects of Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations. Some X++ coding experience is expected.

In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it, How it works, There's more, and See also).

To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, we use these sections as follows:

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Then, to override the data source's write() method."

A block of code is set as follows:

  [FormDataSourceEventHandler(formDataSourceStr(CustGroup, 
   CustGroup), FormDataSourceEventType::Written)] 
  public void CustGroup_OnWritten(FormDataSource sender, 
  FormDataSourceEventArgs e) 
 {   
   this.numberSeqFormHandler().formMethodDataSourceWrite(); 
 }

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen."

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book-what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply e-mail [email protected], and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.